Katharina Fritsch: Hahn / Cock. Fourth Plinth, London. 25 July 2013

Katharina Fritsch’s 4.7-metre high sculpture Hahn / Cock will occupy the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square for 18 months from 25th July 2013. The large cobalt blue cockerel is an object out of place, bringing the decorative distraction of the art gallery and a suggestion of the farmyard to the tourists. The work was commissioned prior to the London 2012 Olympics and there is an element of artistic subversion as the presence of a French cultural symbol challenges the notion of nationalistic icons and the jingoistic London statuary, and more directly a gallic oeil à oeil challenge to the status of Nelson on his column.

Previous commissions have been Mark Wallinger, Ecce Homo, 1999; Bill Woodrow, Regardless of History, 2000; Rachel Whiteread, Monument, 2001; Marc Quinn,Alison Lapper Pregnant, September 2005; Thomas Schütte,Model for a Hotel, 2007; Antony GormleyOne & Other, 2009; Yinka Shonibare MBE, Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, 2011 – subsequently purchased for the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich; and Elmgreen & Dragset, Powerless Structures, Fig 101, 2012. The Fourth Plinth Programme was initiated in 1998 by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) with the support of the Cass Sculpture Foundation. In 1999 responsibility was transferred to the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority. The Fourth Plinth Programme is commissioned by the Mayor’s Culture Team, and the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, who have been responsible for placing works since 2005. The programme is funded by the Mayor of London with support from Arts Council England.

Born in Essen, Germany, Katharina Fritsch studied at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. She represented Germany at the 46th Venice Biennale and has exhibited at the Kunstmuseum Krefeld, ICA London, Kunsthalle Basel, DIA Centre for the Arts New York, San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum für Gegenwartskunst Basel, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Tate Modern, K21 Kunstsammlung im Ständehaus, Düsseldorf, Kunsthaus Zurich, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, and the Art Institute of Chicago. International group shows including the Munster Sculpture Project, The Carnegie International Pittsburgh, 7th Lyon Biennale, 10,000 Lives: 8th Gwangju Biennale South Korea, ‘Illuminations’, 54th Venice Biennale, ‘Figure in the Garden’ in the Rockefeller Sculpture Garden MoMA, New York and and K20 Düsseldorf. Her work is represented in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, Schaulager, Basel, Glenstone Collection, Maryland, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen Düsseldorf and MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt.